Cal looking to bowl over Oregon State's win streak

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, November 12, 2011

First there was the Kevin Riley game in 2007. That ended badly. Then there was the other Kevin Riley game, in 2010. That also ended badly and gave way to Brock Mansion. Enough said.

In between there was the Jahvid Best game in 2009. That ended with a frightening fall.

There's something about Oregon State that brings out the worst in Cal on the football field. Over the past dozen doleful years, the Bears have lost 10 of 12 games to the Beavers, including five of the past six and the past four in a row. Cal has not defeated Oregon State in a home game since 1997.

"That's about to change," guard Justin Cheadle said of Cal's recent sad streak against Oregon State, today's opponent in an afternoon game at AT&T Park.

"You can't overlook that they've beaten us the last four years," linebacker D.J. Holt said. "That's definitely motivation right there."

There is motivation aplenty today for the 5-4 Bears. Beat the Beavers and Cal will achieve its sixth victory of the season and become bowl-eligible, with heavyweight opponents Stanford and Arizona State still to come.

"It's about this week," said coach Jeff Tedford, who is 2-7 against Oregon State and has never defeated the Beavers at home. "If we're successful in the game, then we become bowl-eligible. We can't act like it doesn't exist. Oregon State has gotten the better of us for a few years."

An understatement, that.

As a redshirt freshman quarterback in '07, Riley was driving the Bears down the field toward a potential tying field goal when he failed to go down on a scramble to stop the clock. The clock expired on a 31-28 Cal defeat, causing Tedford to slam his headset into the ground in frustration.

Riley sustained a season-ending knee injury at Oregon State last year in the first quarter, and Mansion was ineffective the rest of the way in a 35-7 loss. The Bears lost at Memorial Stadium 31-14 in '09 when a leaping Best fell to the turf from at least six feet in the air, sustaining a concussion and a back injury.

In the Tedford era, the Bears have two blowout wins over Oregon State, both in Corvallis, in 2004 and '06. Other than that, it's been a whole lot of ugliness.

Oregon State coach Mike Riley, who it can be said has Tedford's number, downplayed his run of success against Cal in his weekly news conference. The two are the longest-tenured coaches in the Pac-12 Conference.

"I think every year is a new year," Riley said. "You cannot put too much stock in the past. Both these teams are at different places; certainly we are. It becomes a brand new game, really. It's whoever plays the best that day. We've played well against Cal. We have a ton of respect for Jeff and that program."

Tedford's players readily admit that Oregon State has simply played better than they have in recent years. Since Cal has generally had higher-ranked recruiting classes than Oregon State, it's reasonable to suggest Riley is the better coach, or at least one who gets more out of his players than Tedford.

"The more experience you get with another coach and his style and philosophy, it's only going to help," Summers-Gavin said of Riley. "I respect coach Riley a lot. Oregon State was one of the schools I was looking at" as a recruit.

Safety Sean Cattouse said he does not want to finish his Cal career never having beaten Oregon State.

"For a lot of older guys, never having beaten them, it's something we definitely want to do," he said. "There's a lot of motivation for every game, especially this one, with bowl eligibility" at stake.

Cal today

Who: Oregon State (2-7, 2-4 Pac-12) at Cal (5-4, 2-4 Pac-12)

Where: AT&T Park

When: 3:36 p.m.

TV/Radio: CSNCA/810

Story line: Cal can become bowl-eligible with a win over Oregon State, just in time since it plays Stanford and Arizona State to finish the season. The Bears also want to end their four-game losing streak to the Beavers.